Various industrial applications, including but not limited to the gas turbine engine industry, employ the use of high melting point, lightweight, and creep-resistance materials. One such class of materials that exhibits these properties is ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials. CMC materials are composed of ceramic fibers embedded in a ceramic matrix. The fibers and matrix may be based on silicon carbides, silicon nitrides, alumina, and/or aluminosilicates, for example.
Despite their advantages, when CMC materials are exposed to temperatures in excess of about 1200° C. in the presence of an oxidizing agent such as water vapor, CMC materials begin to exhibit passive and/or active oxidation and/or degradation. Accordingly, there is a need for improved CMC materials that are better resistant to degradation in oxidizing environments at temperatures in excess of about 1200° C. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the disclosure and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.